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Courts in Kuching: the Development of Settlement Patterns and Institutional Architecture in Colonial Sarawak, 1847 - 1927

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Courts in Kuching: the Development of Settlement Patterns and Institutional Architecture in Colonial Sarawak, 1847 - 1927 1119 Courts in Kuching: The development of settlement patterns and institutional architecture in colonial Sarawak, 1847 - 1927 John Ting The University of Melbourne Abstract James Brooke’s Sarawak Government originally obtained jurisdiction over the Lundu, Sarawak and Samarahan River basins that made up ‘Sarawak’ in 1841, when he was conferred the title of Rajah by the Brunei Sultanate. During his and his successors, Charles Brooke’s and Vyner Brooke’s, century- long rule of Northwest Borneo as the ‘white Rajahs,’ Sarawak’s territory expanded several times to become what is now the Malaysian state of the same name. While he employed Europeans in his government, Brooke also relied on indigenous officers and groups (and their spatial practices) as part of his adoption of indigenous forms of rule. He also appropriated indigenous and vernacular architecture and settlement patterns for his capital, Kuching, as well as new territories, during his tenure as Rajah. The location of his original court in Kuching followed Malay tradition by being located in his Malay nobleman’s house, built for him by Sarawak’s Bruneian governor in 1841. He began to develop the court as an institution when he moved his court out of his residence and across the river to the commercial side of Kuching in 1847. This location has had three different courthouses constructed on it. The third courthouse was then extended four times before World War Two, during the reigns of Charles and Vyner Brooke. This paper explores how the Government adopted and began to change indigenous spatial practices as part of their diverse approaches to governing. It argues that the development of their governance can be read through the development of their institutions (particularly the Courthouse complex) and its effect on the urban morphology of Kuching. When James Brooke first arrived in Northwest Borneo, indigenous spatial practices were not based on permanence and ownership of territory. The indigenous groups that Brooke originally encountered were mercantile Malays, and agriculturalist Ibans and Bidayuhs, 1120 Fabulation: Proceedings of the 29th Annual SAHANZ Conference 2 University of Tasmania, Launceston, 5-8 July 2012 who all had distinctive but mobile spatial practices, and less than permanent settlement patterns. While strategic locations were significant to the socially stratified Malay groups who relied on trade, their followers and personal relationships with suppliers and other traders was more important. When threatened, they generally migrated (or strategically retreated) to new locations, rather than to lose their followers in battle, as they were considered as labour, wealth and prestige. In contrast, both Iban and Bidayuh groups had an egalitarian social structure, but interpersonal relationships within and between groups was still important due to the way they shared and exchanged labour. As agriculturalists, they were less mobile, but they were still prone to regular migration, due to shifting cultivation practices. Overfarming was a tendency, and access to new agricultural areas was more important than ownership of existing farmlands. For these reasons, the material culture of Malays, Ibans and Bidayuhs was not invested in permanent construction and materials. Ibans also used the mobile practice of raiding as a way of acquiring labour through slavery, and wealth and prestige, through material gain and headhunting. The Malays and Bidayuhs of Sarawak, before James Brooke, fell victim to raiding by Ibans from the Skrang and Saribas River Basins. As I have discussed elsewhere, not all indigenous groups in Northwest Borneo were as mobile - Kenyah and Kayan groups, who inhabited the headwaters of large rivers in Northwest Borneo, were more permanent, and their architecture reflected that. However, they were geographically peripheral to the original area ceded to Brooke.1 Sarawak was a vassal of the Brunei Sultanate, and Kuching was established in the 1820’s by Sarawak’s Bruneian governor, Pengiran Mahkota.2 According to indigenous practice, Kuching was so named as it was settled at the confluence of the Kuching and Sarawak Rivers. It was settled as a riverine Malay trading town, from which they also ruled Malay, Bidayuh, Iban and Chinese groups in the Sarawak, Lundu and Samarahan Rivers. The first rajah gained control of Sarawak by being able to read and employ indigenous power structures for his own ends.3 While he maintained his relations with individuals within the British colonial system, he was estranged from many aspects of Britain’s colonialism due to its support of large commercial interests at the expense of all else. This was partly brought on by his inability to interest Britain in taking on Sarawak as a colony, and he decided to become the independent European ruler of an Eastern state. From 1841 to 1868, the first rajah leveraged both his colonial relationships and his indigenous title (and associated forms of rule and spatial practices) to establish, strengthen and protect not only his position in Kuching and Sarawak, but also his unique 1121 Fabulation: Proceedings of the 29th Annual SAHANZ Conference 3 University of Tasmania, Launceston, 5-8 July 2012 approach to Eastern rule. While part of his aim was to prevent his subjects from becoming victims of colonial commerce, he also began to introduce western principles to indigenous law and its institutions. The second rajah, Charles Brooke, (1868 to 1917,) generally consolidated the state’s position, and continued the adoption and appropriation of indigenous forms of rule (and spatial practices,) especially in the new river basins that the government acquired. However, a more modern and approach began to influence the government during this period. While the third rajah, Vyner Brooke, (1917 to 1946,) was sensitive to the indigenisation of his predecessors, he began to modernise the government and the state. He finally ceded Sarawak to the British after the Japanese Interregnum during World War Two, in 1946, when the state became a colony of Britain. The different approaches to governance of these three rajahs are represented in the development of the settlement patterns of Kuching, and its institutional architecture, especially the three different courthouses. James Brooke and the Adoption and Modification of Indigenous Practices James Brooke’s first house (1841) in Kuching was a Malay nobleman’s house, built for him by Sarawak’s Bruneian governor. It was appropriate (in design, size and materials,) for his position as rajah of Sarawak, and Brooke’s occupation of this house demonstrates his willingness to live as a Malay regent.4 However, as John Walker has noted, Brooke immediately began to modify the use of his residence with the use of European furniture, and used as his court for both public and private audiences.5 Traditionally, an open pavilion, or balai, adjacent to the regent’s residence, was used for public audiences and dealing with public matters whereas the residence was reserved for private meetings. This personalisation of his rule was the first significant architectural modification of Malay governance. Walker goes on to discuss Brooke’s decision to introduce a non-Malay veranda when he built his second house around 1843, which he continued to use as his court.6 This second house is also significant as it was the first building to be designed and implemented by Brooke, in contradiction to what I have suggested previously.7 Similarly, he introduced some general principles of European law to his governance of Sarawak, which overrode some indigenous traditional practices, such as debt bondage, head- hunting and raiding.8 The return of Sarawak’s Bruneian overlords to their homeland, and the government’s prevention of raiding by Ibans from the Skrang and Saribas River basins in the Sarawak River changed not only the security situation, but also indigenous settlement patterns. When Brooke first arrived in Kuching in 1839, it contained somewhere between 800 and 1500 inhabitants, comprised mostly of the local followers of the Brunei governor, as well 1122 Fabulation: Proceedings of the 29th Annual SAHANZ Conference 4 University of Tasmania, Launceston, 5-8 July 2012 as a handful of Chinese traders.9 Prior to 1841, defence was the main factor that drove the location and layout of indigenous settlements in Northwest Borneo, with longhouses being protected by their height, palisades, and location on mountains, and aristocratic and noble Malay houses being fortified, and protected by high timber fortifications. The improved security conditions saw a relaxation of defensive architectural devices, including the Rajah’s second house, which was not protected by a fence or palisade. Rajah James also attracted aristocratic Malays and their followers from upriver to settle around his Kuching court. Brooke understood that the permanence of the raj ensured the permanence of his Malay followers. Although Bidayuh settlements remained close to their agricultural lands in the hinterland, they began to move off the mountains and settle closer to rivers. Only the largely self governing Chinese miners did not change their settlement patterns, although more Chinese and Indian traders began to feel safe enough to settle in Kuching, across the river from Brooke’s residence. By 1847, Kuching was reported to have grown to about 8,000, including several hundred Indians and 150 Chinese traders.10 Brooke also adopted indigenous defence methods, with the establishment a timber fort in Kuching, (most likely in 1844,)
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